Indian-American women earn more than white men in US: Report

Washington: Indian-American women earn more on average when compared to non-Hispanic white men in the US, according to a new report.

However, compared to Asian American men, Asian American women only make 78 cents on the dollar, which is the largest gender gap among the racial and ethnic categories studied, the report by US Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) said.

The smallest gender gap was among African Americans black women earn nearly 90 cents on the dollar compared to black men. More than half of Asian Americans over 25 have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to only 33 per cent of non-Hispanic whites.

About 72 per cent of Indian Americans have four-year college degrees, and a whopping 40 per cent have some professional or graduate degree. This means that Indian Americans are more likely to have advanced degrees than white Americans are likely to have finished college, the ‘Washington Post’ reported.

About 21.8 per cent of Asian Americans also have graduate or professional degrees, compared to 12.8 per cent of non-Hispanic whites. This could explain the apparent advantage that Asian women have over men, the report said.

Economist Mark Perry wrote in his blog that Asian women working full-time earned only about 3 per cent less per week (USD 841) than the average full-time male worker (USD 871) in 2014, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Asian women working full-time in 2014 earned more per week on average than black (USD 680) and Hispanic men (USD 616).